How to steam a knitted product?

Now more than ever, hand-knitted things are popular. Craftswomen-lords of knitting needles and crochets are able to knit the most complex patterns in a way that was not dreamed of by many factory manufactures. Instagram is full of pages with stunning beauty cardigans, hats and scarves. Handmade is unusually widespread and enjoys well-deserved love among many, because each thing hand-tied is individual, made specifically for the customer and, as a rule, is worn with great love.

With proper care, sweaters, hats and cardigans will last you several years without losing their original appearance.

But the usual “store” knitwear is no less popular, especially with the advent of autumn, and then winter, which are rarely cold in Russian latitudes. First, turtlenecks, cardigans and fluffy stoles appear in our wardrobe, later - voluminous hats, sweaters with braids or jacquards, warm snood scarves and mittens with woolen socks. Both adults and children wear these items.

Of course, wool, cashmere and acrylic knitwear need to be washed no less than fabric, as they become soiled when worn equally. However, both washing and ironing must be correct. Very many of them can be washed only by hand (especially for hand-knitted things) at a temperature of no higher than 30 degrees. It is better to use special compositions for wool for washing, many knitters “with experience” recommend a 2 in 1 conditioner shampoo for this. If you decide to use a washing machine, only the delicate mode or the “for wool” mode will do. The number of revolutions during the spin cycle should be no more than 600, and preferably even less.Yes, the thing will dry much longer, but at the same time it will not stretch, it will not warp, it will remain symmetrical and even.

Removing any kind of stains on a knitted product occurs before the main wash. To do this, you need to soak the thing in warm water (about 30 degrees) and apply a stain remover on the spot surface either in liquid form or in the form of soap. Then you can wash the thing either in the machine or with your hands, as usual.

Dry such things laid out on a vertical surface, squeeze and twist them with great care, if possible, it is better to place them over the bathtub so that excess water merges, while the product should not sag and stretch. A special clothes dryer, attached to the wall in the bathroom, is well suited.

After the product has dried, it needs to be wet-heat treated (WTO), and in most cases it cannot be ironed. To give things the correct shape and alignment of loops in its knitting, only an iron with the “steam” function or a steamer for clothes is suitable.

The product must be carefully laid out on the surface of the ironing board and covered with clean gauze or a cotton cloth previously moistened with water a little. After this, the thing must be steamed using either the “steam” function on the iron or the steamer. If the thing has just been connected, then the WTO should be carried out immediately after the end of mating. So the canvas is straightened, the loops are made smoother, and the product takes on the form that was originally conceived.

If for some reason you don’t have a “new generation” iron at hand, but you still need to iron a knitted product, any iron will do. However, you will have to act very carefully so as not to burn a hole in the knitted fabric or leave a tan.

In the same way, you need to put the thing on the ironing board and cover it with a clean piece of gauze or cotton cloth. Then spray clean water onto the entire surface of the fabric using a spray gun. Next, move the iron lever to the maximum temperature, and, holding it very close to the product, but without touching it, drive over its entire area. This action requires great accuracy and concentration, but the result, if you did everything correctly, will be exactly the same as if you used a steamer.

When steaming things connected with knitting needles or crochet, attention should be paid to the seams, if any. It is necessary to steam them in such a way that ugly creases do not form at the places where the parts of the product are stitched together.

If there are no seams on things (for example, on sweaters and dresses knitted with raglan both from above and from below), they need to be steamed so that there are no wrinkles on the sides. It is best to gently pull the product onto the ironing board and sequentially treat it with hot steam on all sides. If stitching was carried out using a knit stitch “loop into a loop” (most often you can find it on handmade things), then they are smoothed out in the same way.

If you use a vertical steamer for steaming your knitwear, you can not lay out the items on the ironing board, and after drying, hang them on the clothes hanger. Steaming can be done directly on them. You need to remember that by leveling the surface of the clothes in this way, you make it wet, and after finishing this procedure you need to let things dry.

If the product is not knitted from natural wool or cotton (most often it is found in industrial production), for example, sweaters or scarves made of acrylic, there are some peculiarities in caring for it. Since this material is one hundred percent synthetic fibers, it is contaminated faster than natural. They erase it in water no hotter than 40 degrees. If you do this manually, in no case should you wash off stains that have formed on clothing. They should be gently rubbed with soap and stain remover and left for the time recommended in the instructions.After this time, you must carefully rinse the item and squeeze out excess water from it.

As for steaming things from acrylic, it is very easy to spoil them, like products from bamboo thread, cotton or lurex. Therefore, the WTO should not be carried out at the maximum temperature of the iron. As for cotton threads, they have the property of strong shrinkage when steaming, in addition, it is very easy to plant a spot on them with hot steam, so the WTO is carried out quickly and with a hot iron.

See how to steam a knitted item in the next video.